Actor Stephen Mangan is a well-travelled man whose destinations have ranged from Honduras to Laos. But it was one place in particular which he recalled on the Ruth Jones talk show on BBC2 on Monday night: Israel.

An airline guard, a young woman with a big gun, began grilling him about his career and even student days. When he said that he had chosen a Beckett radio play for his Rada audition, she barked: "A radio play for a theatre audition?"

Why do you want to know all this, he nervously asked his armed interrogator? "I want to be an actress," she beamed.